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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423600">New Century D</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/findingbigdump/pseuds/findingbigdump'>findingbigdump</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Initial D, Zoids (Anime &amp; Toys)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Mecha, Minor Violence, Other, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Will update tags as characters appear, pretty much every character will be here, replace every car with a zoid and you're good, robot gore, robot-on-robot violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 05:28:17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,854</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25423600</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/findingbigdump/pseuds/findingbigdump</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A not so terrible (mostly just strange) crossover</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. A Boy and His Dog</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Barren desert stretched as far as the eye could see, overlooked by the distant amber summit that marked the boundary between civilization and the wild unknown. Sparse vegetation crunched noiselessly under massive black paws, far from the ears of the boy within. The massive metal Wolf loped forward with purpose. It knew where to go, even if the boy did not.</p><p>The hot air hissed against the beast’s cool metal surface. Small beads of sweat began to form on the boy’s forehead, despite being shielded from the sun’s harsh rays.<em> I need to remind dad to fix the ac</em>, the boy thought, <em>it’s not like I haven’t been telling him for the past month…</em> His brows knit together as he surveyed the arid wasteland. It was all sand and shrubs, easy rolling dunes and a few rocky outcroppings. He twisted to get a better look at the easternmost screen. Cursing the Wolf’s poor vision, he attempted to zoom in on a suspicious looking knoll. Through squinted eyes, the pixels began to align themselves in the shape of an overturned Gustav partially buried in the sand. While the boy struggled to lock onto the carrier’s position, the Wolf changed its position to follow its trail. The boy shifted to steer the zoid only to find out that it had already turned on its own accord. He sighed. If he was supposed to be bonding with this creature, it could at least let him be in control. He yanked the steering column up, forcing the Wolf to halt. <em>That’s better</em>. The boy smirked as the Wolf let out a groan. </p><p>"Easy now", he told it, gently pushing the levers away from himself. The Wolf slowly began to walk, coming to a lopsided lope as the boy struggled to balance the weight of the long-range cannon on its back. The boy fought with the controls, feeling them tear away from his hands with every bound the Wolf took. It felt as if the Wolf was mocking him. He knew that it knew exactly how to balance itself out, and that it was testing him. <em>The stupid hunk of junk is </em><em>probably laughing at me</em><em>.</em> The boy scowled, trying to counter the weight. Every step it took felt like his arms would rip off.  </p><p>After what felt like eons of struggling, he felt that he finally got a hang of it. The Wolf bounded without any inhibitions, and the boy felt, actually felt, free. It was nice to get away from all the hassles living in the city brought, even though he acted like he hated these favors for his father. The city was too loud and too crowded for the boy’s taste, and the smell of tofu permeated every single room in their crappy little two story shack. School was a bore, and even though graduation was just around the corner, it felt never ending. Outside the city, outside the slums, now <em>that’s</em> where life really began. No humans (as human as one can be after millenniums of interspecies relationships with Zoidians), no cars, no zoids. Just you and the blank abyss. There was no one to tell the boy to stop daydreaming, to stop wandering aimlessly. If it wasn’t interdicted to cross the mountains, he would like to explore. Gazing dreamily at the distant peaks, he fantasized at what the world was like beyond. There were without a doubt more cities, somewhere out there was the “new” capital of the old Helic Republic as well as the largest city of the Guylos Empire. That, at least, was something he got out of being in school. If he paid attention for more than a few seconds, he’d know if they still existed or not. At least he knew that he lived in former Republic territory. That was probably one thing going for him, as the cities in old Gylos territory are almost always in disarray. The boy knew from the gossip customers exchanged like bits of their own soul at both his job and at his father’s tofu shop that Neo-Zenebas loyalists still ran amok in little swarms. “Just like the bugs they are,” Iketani had said one day. The boy didn’t know much about them, or the war, so he agreed and joined in with his friend’s virulence. He wondered if there were any Neo-Zenebas gangs hanging around in his city. The city seemed peaceful enough, just loud. <em>It would be interesting, though, if something shook it up…</em> But as luck would have it, it was the boy who ended up being shook up. He bucked forward into the restraints as the Wolf came to a halt.</p><p>“What the-” The Wolf angled its nose down, letting the boy see that they were practically on top of the derelict Gustav. “Oh.” He rubbed his temples, the Wolf letting out a low growl at his obliviousness. <em> Not even here am I allowed to think </em>. “Stupid damn thing,” he muttered under his breath as he undid his harness. The Wolf snarled and jerked its head up, sending him headfirst into the glass of its cockpit. While his father was rather lenient, the Wolf would not tolerate him swearing. Silently cursing, the boy rubbed the soon-to-be bruise on his head.</p><p>“Alright, I get it. Can you let me out now?” The boy asked in the most polite and pitiful tone he could muster while masking his anger. The Wolf shifted from paw to paw, making up its mind. It bowed, and slowly brought itself down so the boy could easily jump out of the cockpit without breaking any bones. The boy slid out from under the steering column and waited for the canopy to open. He shimmied out instead of waiting for it to fully open, sliding down the Wolf’s cheek and hopping onto its waiting paw. He felt all of the grooves and nicks on the still-cool metal, each holding a story from a world the boy would never know. </p><p>Once on the ground, he made his way to the Gustav’s half buried form. He drew a sharp breath in, backing away from the snail’s cockpit. It smelled strongly of rot, and the sickly sweet smell of death. He knew exactly what he’d find in there, and it wouldn’t be anything worth his time. Instead of prying in the business of the dead, he crawled onto the top of the Gustav’s trailer. The cover seemed to be completely intact, meaning that the goods inside were pristine and untouched by both man and nature for years.  The boy unsheathed a knife and slowly dragged it through the canvas, creating a hole big enough for himself and a box to fit through. He wiggled down the cut, and dropped down to the dusty floor with a hollow thunk. A mushroom cloud of dust curled around him, the little flecks shining gold in the rays of the sun. Inside the trailer, it was eerily quiet. All the boy could hear were grains of sand tapping against the canvas, and the occasional mechanical groan of the Wolf’s joints as it shifted positions. It was fairly empty as well, with only a few crates pushed to the side. The boy shuffled through their contents, pocketing what still looked useful. Most of their contents had dry rotted away, leaving useless scraps of stripped metal behind. He managed to salvage a camshaft, a couple small hydraulic pistons, and some cracked circuitry. The rest of it he left for time to deteriorate. Shoving the circuit boards into the pockets of his jeans, he balanced the pistons in one arm. The Wolf was waiting outside for him, and he quickly hopped into the cockpit to drop off his goods. By the third round, the Wolf began twitching and whining. It impatiently waited for the boy to finish. Halfway out of the trailer, he paused to watch it curiously. It was easy to forget that there was a living being inside of the metal shell. Once out, he jogged a couple of paces away from the Gustav, and signaled to the Wolf that it could do whatever it wanted. Keening like a wild animal, it furiously scrabbled at the cracked shell. Peeling it back and tossing it like it was nothing, the Wolf took no time at all to get to the Gustav’s center. It belted a howl of victory- it had found the Gustav’s core. With a strong tug, it tore out the core. Cables and pipes dangled from the Wolf’s jaws as it set the core in between its paws. The protective lining peeled away from the core like paper from a stick of butter. The Wolf made short, happy barking noises when it reached the semi-liquified contents within. The heavy metallic scent, the gurgling of the flesh and liquid sliding down the Wolf’s throat into some unknown cavern, and the absolute carnage left behind made the boy turn away and cover his face with his shirt. The scent of death, from both biomachine and human alike, brought a deep churning in the boy’s stomach. Tears sprang forth from the corners of his squinched eyes as he convulsed.</p><p>He wasn’t sure when it ended, or how exactly he ended up kneeling on the sand, but he was shot back to reality when he felt something hard and slightly damp push him forward. Head still spinning, he slowly turned around. He immediately regretted it. The Wolf’s giant face loomed in front of him, the stark white sickly in contrast with the slimy layer of viscera coating its teeth. It whined at him worriedly. It didn’t see anything wrong with enjoying a meal, and if the boy was sick, it should bring him back to its master immediately. It nervously watched the boy hold a hand to his stomach and cover his mouth, eyes bulging. The Wolf whined again, louder this time, and nudged him again with its bloody snout. His shoulders were shaking and he made strange whimpering noises. The Wolf cocked its head, not knowing what to do. It laid down behind him, nose brushing his back. Thinking that the boy was broken, it frantically attempted to scoop him up into the cockpit. The boy groaned, latching on to the rough spot where the armor meets the interior of the cockpit as the Wolf flipped him up inside. The pointed edges of the monitors dug into his sides, and the triggers on the tops of the steering apparatus dug into his neck. Each screen scraped against him in ways he never wanted to be touched by metal as he contorted through the intricate control panel system. Once safely back in his seat, he shakily brought down the harness and let the Wolf lead him home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Crybaby</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The boy must have fallen asleep inside of the Wolf, as next thing he knew he was being jostled around inside of the zoid’s cockpit. His ribs hurt, his arms hurt, <em> everything </em> hurt. Even pressing the release for his harness and for the canopy required a lot more energy than he’d like to expend. He slid out onto the asphalt of the small lot next to his house, and scraped himself up off the ground weakly.</p><p>Each step to the back door was torture. He still felt sick to his stomach, and he was tired as hell. The sun hung low, suspended in the air by distant skyscrapers. He squinted at it, remembering how high it was when he was still conscious. Looking at it reminded him of just how lousy he felt, so he rested on the cool wooden panels of his house before slinking in. If his father caught him, he'd ask for the parts, and if he didn't catch him, he could run upstairs and sleep peacefully. He took a deep breath in, weighing his options. He slowly reached for the doorknob, turning it ever so slightly. No noises came from the other side, signalling that his father wasn’t home. He opened the door just enough for his body to slide through without making any noises, and shut it behind him. The house was completely dark, and as he peered around the corner he realized that his father was nowhere to be seen. <em> He must be out drinking. </em> The boy sighed. It may be a bad habit, but it was letting him off the hook for tonight. He tossed the contents of his pockets onto the kotatsu, and made his way upstairs. His bed never seemed more comfortable as he propelled himself full-force into it.</p><p> </p><hr/><p>A warm breeze blew on the boy's face, ruffling his honey-brown tresses. From the school’s roof, he could see the city in the distance ahead. He could make out twisting suspended roads and bridges between impossibly tall buildings in the distant city. Surrounding the school was a typical little town setting, or as his friends liked to call it, the slums. There were main roads strictly for zoids, but not many people had money to own one. In the city, zoids were able to travel underneath said floating highways. The boy sighed. He only had an hour for lunch, and most of it would be spent up on the roof. He shut out most of what his friend Itsuki was blabbering about, and stared into the abyss. Alas, it was hard to zone out when his name was being chanted like a mantra. </p><p>“1.3 million yen for a Heldigunner...that’s too expensive, but it looks so badass!” Itsuki whined. “I guess I’ll have to go for something more low tech. Old Republic zoids should be fairly common here. That’s more realistic.” He flipped around in the marketplace section of the magazine in his hands before turning to the boy.</p><p>“Hey Takumi, you listening?” The boy shot out of his daydream. Lingering in the sleepy afterglow, he glanced over at Itsuki.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah. I hear you...So how much are the...uh…” Takumi paused, attempting to string together a cognizant description to show Itsuki that he was actually paying attention, which wouldn’t fool anyone, “the cheap Republican ones…?” Itsuki seemed pleased with his response.</p><p>“Well, the best kinds of zoids are the ones that are the most adaptive. Like say you have a Molga. They’re pretty shitty.” He looked at the boy to check if he was still paying attention. “But the one thing they have goin’ for them is that they can host a variety of weapons. You can put on a Shot Cannon, or an AA-”</p><p>“A what?” </p><p>“Anti Air, as in shooting down flyers? Aircraft?” Itsuki let out an exasperated sigh, enunciating every word slowly. Takumi still didn’t understand, but he nodded anyway.</p><p>“Do you want a Molga?”</p><p>“<b><em>No! </em></b>It was just an example. Jeez, Takumi! I swear…” Itsuki had to look somewhere else, lest he let out his rage on the boy. “You want something <em>versatile</em>. Like here,” He opened the magazine, dramatically flipping through the ads and leaning into Takumi, “this one right here.” He tapped on the image of a wolf with white armor. Alongside it was one with blue metallic  flake armor, a red one, and a grey one, all equipped with the stock 50mm Anti-Zoid Double Barrel Beam Cannon. Takumi knew that the colors weren’t what he should be focusing on, so he tuned back in to Itsuki.</p><p>“These bad boys can take just about any weapon. Plop a Dual Sniper Rifle on it and bam! It’d be nearly invincible! But that doesn’t make up for the weak armor, or the lessened maneuverability and speed…” Itsuki rubbed his chin in contemplation. Takumi peered down to get a closer look at the ads. They looked oddly similar to his father’s Wolf, but he couldn’t imagine it ever looking as nice and shiny as these, and the guns were different, so obviously they couldn’t be the same.</p><p>“So how much are these….Command Wolves?”</p><p>“They’re pretty common, so you can find one just about anywhere for 300K yen. But that’s without registration...or insurance...or modifications…” Itsuki trailed off, expression growing more sour by the second.</p><p>“And how much do you have saved?”</p><p>“...Around 50K…” Takumi rested his chin on his hand, and gazed out at the distant city. </p><p>“So there’s still a long way to go…” Itsuki groaned.</p><p>“Why can’t there be some magical way to get a lot of money fast?!? Even at our job we work our asses off all summer just to make 120K at best! And no one tips!” While Itsuki raged, Takumi tilted towards the magazine again, still leaning against the railing. </p><p>“What about this one?” He pointed to a little stegosaurus, hidden in the corner of the page.</p><p>“Huh? A Gorhecks? No way! You can’t fight with that! It’s useless!”</p><p>“But it has weapons. And it’s cute.” Takumi looked closely at the image, noting its various missile pods.</p><p>“Cute! Takumi, are you sure you’re alright up here?” He knocked on the boy’s head. “And the missiles mean nothing. What would you do if someone came too close to you? It’s slow as crap, and its armor is thin, too. Cute… you’re lucky no one’s here to hear you. What would Iketani say?!?” Itsuki shivered, but before he could continue berating Takumi, a familiar head popped in the space separating them.</p><p>“What are you nerds up to?”</p><p>“Mogi…” Takumi muttered under his breath. A moment of silence passed in between them,  while Itsuki gaped at the tension between them.</p><p>“Don’t clam up, it's not <em>that</em> weird that I'd talk to you!” She teased Takumi, tapping his chest. He remained silent. Ignoring his awkwardness, she moved on.</p><p>“You only get 120K…? How many times a week do you work then?” Itsuki responded in Takumi’s mental absence. </p><p>“Five or six times a week.”</p><p>“What?!? You work that much!?” Mogi looked from Itsuki to Takumi and back again, freaking out. “All that work for such little money!!” Takumi finally decided to get his head out of the clouds, and stepped off the railing to face Mogi.</p><p>“<em> .. </em> .<em>'S</em> <em> uch little money'? </em>That’s about normal for a high schooler working part time.” Mogi seemed genuinely surprised, and gave him a thoughtful look.</p><p>"I didn’t know that. I’ve never had one, so…” She gave them a bashful smile, before turning to go. “Well, good luck!” Winking at Takumi, she added, “Why don’t we go somewhere when finals are over?” With that, she headed down the stairs leading back inside of the school. Takumi watched her take every step, remembering the past he so sorely wished to forget. He didn’t even notice how close Itsuki had gotten, or how intensely he was being watched.</p><p>“<em> Duuude! </em> You never told me you know Natsuki Mogi!”</p><p>“It’s been over a year since I last talked to her.” Takumi said matter-of-factly.</p><p>“Really...”</p><p>“We used to talk a lot until the summer after our second year, since we were in the same club. But then, some things happened that made her not want to be around me anymore.”</p><p>“What’d you do?” Itsuki raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“Nothing like that.” Takumi said sternly. “I didn’t do anything to her. There was a guy, one year older than us in the soccer club who was her…uh, boyfriend at the time, and I beat him up in the locker room. I quit after that, while she kept being the manager. When I’d see her outside of the club, she would pretend I didn't exist.”</p><p>“That’s to be expected, I guess. He was her boyfriend after all. But, for you of all people to beat up an upperclassman in a sports club… what’d he do for you to snap like that?” Takumi sighed, closing his eyes. The warm breeze felt much harsher than before, as if it wanted to burn off his skin.</p><p>“I… I don’t really want to get into why I did it… he just wasn't exactly a pleasant person.”</p><p>“You’ve always been like that. Hard to read. You usually just stare off sleepily into space, but… sometimes, you snap, and it’s like you turn into a completely different person.” Takumi put his hands in his pockets and started off, disliking the resurfacing memories. Itsuki followed after him.</p><p>“You know how in elementary school there’s those kids who go crazy after crying and get really strong? I was kind of like that.” Takumi sighed, hoping that was enough to make Itsuki drop the subject.</p><p> </p><hr/><p>
  <span>“Hey, stop reading that while walking already. You’re going to walk into a pole.” </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not to mention how stupid you look…</span>
  </em>
  <span> The ‘walk’ sign lit up green, and the two boys crossed the road. Itsuki ignored Takumi, and continued scrolling through the magazine’s pages. Suddenly, he shot up straight, and wildly pushed the magazine in Takumi’s face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oooh! This ‘Wolf might be good!” He gave Takumi a sly look. “Saaaay~ Takumi, why don’t we pool our money and get a zoid together? If we combine our wages we should be able to afford a loan…” Takumi pouted, and broke eye contact.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Absolutely not… why are you that desperate to get a zoid? You can’t even do anything with them, and your family’s got a car. Just borrow that if you want to go somewhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A car?!? My </span>
  <em>
    <span>pop’s car</span>
  </em>
  <span><em>!?</em> No way! A car can't even come close to competing with a zoid! It's shit!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But it gets you places, doesn’t it? And there’s no point in owning a zoid. You can’t even take them places here, and they’re a pain to take care of.” Takumi shuttered, remembering his father’s Wolf having a field day tearing at the Gustav’s core. Itsuki stopped in the middle of the sidewalk give his friend the <em>‘are you stupid?’</em> look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t get it, do you? You can’t form a bond, let alone a <em>friendship</em>, with a car. There’s nothing like roaming the wilderness with your partner, and you surely can’t take a car to the gulches.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“To the </span>
  <em>
    <span>what</span>
  </em>
  <span>? Why would you want to go to the gulches?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Isn’t it obvious? To fight!” Itsuki held up his fists and started boxing at an invisible foe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>fun</span>
  </em>
  <span>?” Takumi thought back to all of the times he and the Wolf had been attacked by feral zoids on their scrapping missions. The first time they were ambushed, he almost wet himself. The Wolf dispatched them neatly and as painlessly as possible, but he always felt guilty afterwards. He couldn’t imagine hunting them as a sport. Itsuki apparently didn’t see the cruelty in doing so, and he looked like he was going to have a meltdown.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Duh, of course it’s fun! Not that I’ve ever done it…” He added sadly. Itsuki immediately perked back up to continue berating Takumi. </span>
  <span>“You call yourself a man, and you’ve never wanted to fight in a zoid battle… it’s like the wars of old, but without the casualties! Your blood should be singing just thinking of it!” Takumi, tired of hearing all this, quickly walked away and changed the subject.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s go get some juice before work. I’ll get you pineapple.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Nooo! Wait up!” Itsuki chased after him, waving the magazine. “Not pineapple!”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>If any of the dialogue looks familiar, it's because I heavily referenced the show 🥴</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>sometimes ya just gotta write something a little Odd to feel better.</p><p>This was started as a fun project in 2017. Quarantine seemed like the perfect time to dust it off and make it pretty enough to post lol</p><p>I would like to mention that I'm going off the idea that zoids started off as metal-based lifeforms and were then "domesticated" into war machines (so basically, the battle story's version of how zoids came to be). I'm also going off of Zoids Genesis's idea that zoids require a fuel source, so that's why Takumi's Command Wolf wanted a snack. I'm not sure if it'll or not, or something entirely made up on the spot.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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